Toilets in the great outdoors can be an oasis for hikers, anglers, dirt-bikers and horseback riders, so the threat of padlocking them has created a little anxiety.

The Tahoe National Forest, one of the nation's busiest, is running short on money to maintain its portable toilets. Each of the non-flushing privies sits on a 1,000-gallon concrete tank that has to be emptied, typically once a season.

A bunch of dirt-bikers are offering to pay for pumping out one of them so it can stay open. But that's just one.

Another 10 or so toilets, mostly serving trailheads in the forest, face padlocking."The rest of Sacramento better know they should go to the bathroom before they come up here to recreate," said Joseph Cochran, president of the Nevada County Woods Riders.

His club will foot the bill -- which could be $1,000 -- for a private company to pump out an outdoor toilet serving the Burlington Ridge Recreation Area on Highway 20, about 15 miles north of Nevada City.

This blog is part of the ongoing work of the American River Parkway Preservation Society to provide public education and advocacy around public policy issues that may be related to the Parkway and the adjacent communities along the American River in Sacramento, California.